The organisation has a tradition that dates back to the early 1980s. It was and is one of the flagships and co-creators of Freiburg's cultural scene. Its roots lie in the postmodern movement.
Starting as "Schwarzmarkt e.V.," the organization was founded in 1979 by eleven friends and flatmates, and initially acted as a kind of alternative education center and left-wing sociocultural center. At the same time, Theater im Marienbad and Vorderhaus Freiburg were formed. For the pioneers Bernd Ka, Lilo Stahl and Wolfgang Graf, Schwarzmarkt meant doing something that did not exist anywhere else. For dance, this meant breaking with a conservative understanding of dance and dismantling traditional forms, aesthetics and hierarchies. They pursued a holistic approach that included martial arts, the Feldenkrais method and bioenergetics. In addition, there were also simple life-support courses, such as "Car Repair for Women" or "Seeing without Glasses".